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Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Law

Community Development Finance And Economic Justice, Peter R. Pitegoff Jan 2019

Community Development Finance And Economic Justice, Peter R. Pitegoff

Faculty Publications

This chapter reflects on the history of community economic development, community development financial institutions, and their relationship with law and legal scholarship. It describes the robust use of complex legal and financial tools in community development practice today and presents Maine-based Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI) as a window into the evolution of the field over the last four decades. Part II traces the wider history and context of community development finance and of the dramatic expansion in tax credit financing. Part III explores the implications of this trend for sustainability and local accountability, underscoring the distinction between community organizing and …


Improving The Lives Of Individuals In Financial Distress Using A Randomized Control Trial: A Research And Clinical Approach, Lois R. Lupica, Dalie´ Jimenez, D. James Greiner, Rebecca L. Sandefur Jan 2013

Improving The Lives Of Individuals In Financial Distress Using A Randomized Control Trial: A Research And Clinical Approach, Lois R. Lupica, Dalie´ Jimenez, D. James Greiner, Rebecca L. Sandefur

Faculty Publications

This Article describes an ambitious Randomized Control Trial (RCT) in the area of consumer debt collection. Randomized trials are the same kind of evaluation that the law requires (or at least strongly encourages) before new drugs and medical devices may be sold to the public. Although they have not yet gained widespread popularity in the evaluation of legal systems, randomized trials are uniquely effective ways of assessing whether any benefits observed after implementation of legal or educational assistance programs are really due to those programs as compared to other factors, such as unusual levels of competence or motivation of program …


An Evolving Foreclosure Landscape: The Ibanez Case And Beyond, Peter R. Pitegoff, Laura S. Underkuffler Jan 2011

An Evolving Foreclosure Landscape: The Ibanez Case And Beyond, Peter R. Pitegoff, Laura S. Underkuffler

Faculty Publications

Mortgage securitization, subprime lending, a persistently weak housing market, and an explosion of residential mortgage defaults – today’s homeowners and banks face a new and challenging landscape. Recently, courts in several states have issued decisions that alter the terrain for mortgage foreclosures. In Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, among other states, courts have dismissed foreclosure actions on the basis of what might seem to be highly technical deficiencies in the pleading or proof. The most well-known–and controversial–in this cluster of cases is U.S. Bank National Ass’n v. Ibanez, decided by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts this year. In …


Credit Rating Agencies, Structured Securities, And The Way Out Of The Abyss, Lois R. Lupica Jan 2009

Credit Rating Agencies, Structured Securities, And The Way Out Of The Abyss, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

The article examines the role of credit rating agencies (CRAs) in the evolving financial markets, and particularly in connection with the structured finance markets. The movement away from relationship-based lending based on trust, to the less personal capital markets, makes an objective assessment of creditworthiness essential to the structure of legitimate transactions, as well as to the credibility of investor decision-making. Yet, the financial crisis of 2008-2009 revealed that the CRAs seriously underestimated the risk of many complex securities that they rated. As CRAs have devoted a greater share of their resources to develop methods of rating these progressively more …


A Study Of Consumers' Post Discharge Finances: Struggle, Stasis, Or Fresh Start?, Lois R. Lupica, Jay L. Zagorsky Ph.D. Jan 2008

A Study Of Consumers' Post Discharge Finances: Struggle, Stasis, Or Fresh Start?, Lois R. Lupica, Jay L. Zagorsky Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The postwar U.S. has experienced an extremely sharp rise in consumer bankruptcies. What happens to these consumers financially after filing for bankruptcy? Do filers catch up with their non-filing peers, stay a constant distance behind or fall further behind over time? This question is investigated empirically using a new set of financial and bankruptcy data obtained from a large national random survey of bankruptcy filers and non-filers. Along some simple financial dimensions, such as car ownership, bankruptcy filers are not disadvantaged compared to non-filers. Along more complex indicators, such as total income and net worth, filers catch up over time …


Revised Article 9, Securitization Transactions And The Bankruptcy Dynamic, Lois R. Lupica Jan 2001

Revised Article 9, Securitization Transactions And The Bankruptcy Dynamic, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code ("U.C.C.")1 is the law governing the creation, perfection, and enforcement of security interests in personal property. Originally enacted in 1960,2 Article 9 was substantially revised in 1972 in response to changes in commercial financing markets and practices. Since this last revision, there have been further changes, including technological advances, affecting commercial practice and custom. These changes have led the Permanent Editorial Board for the U.C.C. ("PEB") to recommend to the American Law Institute ("ALI") and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ("NCCUSL") that Article 9, once again, be significantly revised. …